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Veritas
April 2000
Volume 42 • Number 7
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Rosenstiel School launches new era of scientific research
Their ship has come in.
Moored in the clear, blue waters of Virginia Key— evoking images of famed vessels of the past—the Rosenstiel Schools new custom-built, technologically advanced catamaran sits poised to begin a new era of scientific research.
With its five-foot, six-inch draft, the 96-foot-long F G. Walton Smithy named after the school’s founding dean, will ply the waters of the world where few research ships can dare venture: delicate reef systems, mangrove areas, grass beds, and other shallow environments.
“There is, quite simply, no other research vessel like it in the world,” says Otis Brown, dean of the Rosenstiel School. “This extraordinary new vessel will allow us unprecedented new research opportunities. We will be able to go farther, faster, with more personnel and more equipment than we have ever been able to do before. It has an extremely wide range of capabilities, as well as the endurance for longer voyages, so we will be able to cover a lot of new territory.” And because of other features— ten two-person staterooms, 800 square feet of laboratory space, a moon pool between the hulls for drilling or coring operations, and a transducer for deep-water bathymetry—the catamaran will be in high demand not only by Rosenstiel School researchers, but scientists all over the world.
Indeed, researchers already have plenty of projects mapped out for the new vessel. Dead ahead in the catamaran’s path: bimonthly interdisciplinary surveys from the Florida Keys and Miami all the way to the Tortugas,
Richard Kniffin (right), master of the 96-foot-long F. G. "Walton Smith, explains some the catamarans high-tech equipment to Norman Berry III, a Rosenstiel School donor who attended the vessel's recent commissioning ceremony.
through the western part of Florida and up the west Florida shelf.
“There is a lot of multidisciplinary research being done right now in the South Florida coastal waters regarding
the effects on water salinity, on the grass beds, and on plankton; and how these regions interact with the Gulf of Mexico and the reef track of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary,” explains Brown.
Like ripples in a pond, the catamaran’s far-reaching impact also will be felt by the Rosenstiel School’s new Center for Sustainable Fisheries. A $30 million fundraising campaign to establish the center, aimed at research and education to protect the world’s threatened fisheries, coincided with the recent commissioning of the F. G. Walton Smith. The center’s first
proposed mission aboard the new vessel: The Billfish Project in June, which will investigate the early development and environmental needs of larval and juvenile billfish.
“In the scientific community, research provides the catalyst for change,” says Patrick J. Walsh, director of the Center. “We envision the Center for Sustainable Fisheries will take a multidisciplinary approach and be the repository of information that organizations around the world can access to initiate change in international fishing policies.”
Funding for the center is critical, though. The center needs to raise $30 million to integrate the research, facilities, and equipment necessary to support its investigation of marine sustainability. In a move toward that goal, the Rosenstiel School has established a board of advisors for the center to assist them through various phases of an aggressive campaign to raise the necessary funds from both private and public sources.
Alex G. Nason, president and founder of the Connecticut-based Alex G. Nason Foundation, Inc., which helped fund the new catamaran, says he hopes his foundation’s donation will serve as an example for other state and federal entities to help fund the center.
“The Rosenstiel School offers one of the best locations in the world to host the Center for Sustainable Fisheries, and funding the combination of world-class research, a world-class faculty, and world-class facilities can be the difference in identifying solutions to this global problem,” Nasson says.
New center promises to bridge scholarly interests
CLAS is now in session.
Though still in its infancy, but with an ambitious mission of bridging scholarly interests across campus clearly in sight, the new Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) has taken its first steps of a new existence.
“We’re starting slowly, but we’re starting with great enthusiasm,” says Director Robert M. Levine, Gabelli Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, and professor of history.
The center, modeled after counterparts at Stanford and Yale universities, will serve nearly 100 faculty and dozens of graduate students at the University who work on Latin American-related topics.
“Scholars tend to work in isolation, sometimes only seeing and talking with colleagues outside their own institutions at professional meetings,” says Levine. “The greatest challenge for us in our first year will be in building bridges, providing a critical mass of activities at the University which will entice faculty and graduate students to come out of their institutional schools and colleges and to engage one another,” says Levine.
To accomplish this, the center has launched a series of programs designed to complement the activities of existing Latin American studies programs, such as the North-South Center and the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
Already in place is an alliance of six “niche groups” composed of faculty members and graduate students. Ranging in topics from film and political science to environmental issues, the niche groups examine Latin American-related scholarly issues, encouraging interaction, cross-disciplinary exploration, and the sharing of knowledge and experiences among faculty and graduate students with complementary interests.
“They set their own schedules, bring in guests if they wish, and can generate research projects based on their work,” explains Levine. “But what’s also special about these groups is that while their regular, internal meetings are closed to the public, they also have the power to generate public events. So that’s how they’re going to serve the University community.”
Director Robert Af. Levine hopes the new center will encourage cross-disciplinary study among scholars.
Also in place is the center’s extensive outreach program that includes an annual film and lecture series. Speakers include journalists, academic specialists, as well as environmental, freedom of the press, and human rights activists.
The center also is aiming toward attracting Latin American scholars to the University as part of a Visiting Faculty Scholar Program. “Ideally, we will arrange for individuals to spend up to
three semesters on campus every other semester,” says Levine. “The guest will teach and interact with students and faculty, and help us link to Latin American universities and research centers. We hope to have one or two scholars in residence beginning the spring semester of2001.”
Levine says the center will also forge institutional partnerships in which it will assist existing exchange programs and keep the University in close and sustained contact with premier academic and research institutions in the hemisphere.
Levine adds that a proven track record is essential to the center’s success. “We need to show that we are serious in terms of our research and programs,” he says. “We’re not yet going to be like the established Latin American centers across the country, but we’re going to do similar things in a special set of ways. We’ll be doing small projects and hoping to get funding within the next two years. And after that, we’ll be looking for larger grants. And by our fifth or perhaps tenth year,
I hope we can be as meaningful as those centers with long traditions.”

Veritas
April 2000
Volume 42 • Number 7
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Rosenstiel School launches new era of scientific research
Their ship has come in.
Moored in the clear, blue waters of Virginia Key— evoking images of famed vessels of the past—the Rosenstiel Schools new custom-built, technologically advanced catamaran sits poised to begin a new era of scientific research.
With its five-foot, six-inch draft, the 96-foot-long F G. Walton Smithy named after the school’s founding dean, will ply the waters of the world where few research ships can dare venture: delicate reef systems, mangrove areas, grass beds, and other shallow environments.
“There is, quite simply, no other research vessel like it in the world,” says Otis Brown, dean of the Rosenstiel School. “This extraordinary new vessel will allow us unprecedented new research opportunities. We will be able to go farther, faster, with more personnel and more equipment than we have ever been able to do before. It has an extremely wide range of capabilities, as well as the endurance for longer voyages, so we will be able to cover a lot of new territory.” And because of other features— ten two-person staterooms, 800 square feet of laboratory space, a moon pool between the hulls for drilling or coring operations, and a transducer for deep-water bathymetry—the catamaran will be in high demand not only by Rosenstiel School researchers, but scientists all over the world.
Indeed, researchers already have plenty of projects mapped out for the new vessel. Dead ahead in the catamaran’s path: bimonthly interdisciplinary surveys from the Florida Keys and Miami all the way to the Tortugas,
Richard Kniffin (right), master of the 96-foot-long F. G. "Walton Smith, explains some the catamarans high-tech equipment to Norman Berry III, a Rosenstiel School donor who attended the vessel's recent commissioning ceremony.
through the western part of Florida and up the west Florida shelf.
“There is a lot of multidisciplinary research being done right now in the South Florida coastal waters regarding
the effects on water salinity, on the grass beds, and on plankton; and how these regions interact with the Gulf of Mexico and the reef track of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary,” explains Brown.
Like ripples in a pond, the catamaran’s far-reaching impact also will be felt by the Rosenstiel School’s new Center for Sustainable Fisheries. A $30 million fundraising campaign to establish the center, aimed at research and education to protect the world’s threatened fisheries, coincided with the recent commissioning of the F. G. Walton Smith. The center’s first
proposed mission aboard the new vessel: The Billfish Project in June, which will investigate the early development and environmental needs of larval and juvenile billfish.
“In the scientific community, research provides the catalyst for change,” says Patrick J. Walsh, director of the Center. “We envision the Center for Sustainable Fisheries will take a multidisciplinary approach and be the repository of information that organizations around the world can access to initiate change in international fishing policies.”
Funding for the center is critical, though. The center needs to raise $30 million to integrate the research, facilities, and equipment necessary to support its investigation of marine sustainability. In a move toward that goal, the Rosenstiel School has established a board of advisors for the center to assist them through various phases of an aggressive campaign to raise the necessary funds from both private and public sources.
Alex G. Nason, president and founder of the Connecticut-based Alex G. Nason Foundation, Inc., which helped fund the new catamaran, says he hopes his foundation’s donation will serve as an example for other state and federal entities to help fund the center.
“The Rosenstiel School offers one of the best locations in the world to host the Center for Sustainable Fisheries, and funding the combination of world-class research, a world-class faculty, and world-class facilities can be the difference in identifying solutions to this global problem,” Nasson says.
New center promises to bridge scholarly interests
CLAS is now in session.
Though still in its infancy, but with an ambitious mission of bridging scholarly interests across campus clearly in sight, the new Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) has taken its first steps of a new existence.
“We’re starting slowly, but we’re starting with great enthusiasm,” says Director Robert M. Levine, Gabelli Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, and professor of history.
The center, modeled after counterparts at Stanford and Yale universities, will serve nearly 100 faculty and dozens of graduate students at the University who work on Latin American-related topics.
“Scholars tend to work in isolation, sometimes only seeing and talking with colleagues outside their own institutions at professional meetings,” says Levine. “The greatest challenge for us in our first year will be in building bridges, providing a critical mass of activities at the University which will entice faculty and graduate students to come out of their institutional schools and colleges and to engage one another,” says Levine.
To accomplish this, the center has launched a series of programs designed to complement the activities of existing Latin American studies programs, such as the North-South Center and the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
Already in place is an alliance of six “niche groups” composed of faculty members and graduate students. Ranging in topics from film and political science to environmental issues, the niche groups examine Latin American-related scholarly issues, encouraging interaction, cross-disciplinary exploration, and the sharing of knowledge and experiences among faculty and graduate students with complementary interests.
“They set their own schedules, bring in guests if they wish, and can generate research projects based on their work,” explains Levine. “But what’s also special about these groups is that while their regular, internal meetings are closed to the public, they also have the power to generate public events. So that’s how they’re going to serve the University community.”
Director Robert Af. Levine hopes the new center will encourage cross-disciplinary study among scholars.
Also in place is the center’s extensive outreach program that includes an annual film and lecture series. Speakers include journalists, academic specialists, as well as environmental, freedom of the press, and human rights activists.
The center also is aiming toward attracting Latin American scholars to the University as part of a Visiting Faculty Scholar Program. “Ideally, we will arrange for individuals to spend up to
three semesters on campus every other semester,” says Levine. “The guest will teach and interact with students and faculty, and help us link to Latin American universities and research centers. We hope to have one or two scholars in residence beginning the spring semester of2001.”
Levine says the center will also forge institutional partnerships in which it will assist existing exchange programs and keep the University in close and sustained contact with premier academic and research institutions in the hemisphere.
Levine adds that a proven track record is essential to the center’s success. “We need to show that we are serious in terms of our research and programs,” he says. “We’re not yet going to be like the established Latin American centers across the country, but we’re going to do similar things in a special set of ways. We’ll be doing small projects and hoping to get funding within the next two years. And after that, we’ll be looking for larger grants. And by our fifth or perhaps tenth year,
I hope we can be as meaningful as those centers with long traditions.”